Sun---> Good for the Soul!!

Several times throughout the summer, I have had all five of my babysitting kids. Most definitely a little chaotic at times--like lunch and any errands that I have to run. But to be honest, its actually a bit easier for most of the day. They play and entertain each other and I only see them when there are issues or they are hungry.  (Side note: The four older ones are old enough that I don't have to keep my eye on them every second of the day!)  Lyvia and I kind of do our own thing or play right along with the big kids.  To say the least, they always have a lot of fun.  I snapped some pictures of our last week of summer.

 Anything can be done in your suit!

 Is the sandbox supposed to be filled with water?! :-)

 Snack time!

 The sprinkler under the trampoline makes for a grand time!

 Everyone jump and say, "We love summer!!"

 Take 2!

 Do they come any cuter?!?!

 2 kids in the tub, rub-a-dub-dub!

 How many of us can fit in this tub?!

 Pretty full with 4 kiddos!

Cami!  We think you can fit too!!

 Thats right!  All five kids in the tub!

 Everyone yell, "We love Kylie!!!"

 How about, "Kylie is AWESOME!"

 How many pictures does it take to get them all looking?

--Never got one--

Back to the tramp to do some flips!

I love summer and everything it entails, including all of my munchkins!!

A Little One on One

As the summer neared the final weeks, I thought it would be fun to do something one-on-one with my babysitting kiddos. I let each of them pick out something they wanted to do and just the two of us went.

Jace loves anything to do with motors or engines or cars or tractors.  You name it and he probably knows the make and model and quite possibly the year!  Lucky for him, the Bremer County fair was going on and that means red neck entertainment at its finest.  I absolutely love county fairs and grew up attending them and showing cattle at them.  The grandstand events are rare and often hard to find anywhere else. Jace chose to go to the combine derbies and I was all in!!  He had a blast. I had a blast. And we saw some combines crash and smash and hit until they didn't run!

 Sat by our buddy Ty!

 Had to be pulled off of the course!

 Crash!

 They couldn't get enough and LOVED when the combines took a run for it!

All smiles! AND we caught a hat that the fair board was throwing out--winner!

Macy went a completely different route and wanted to get her nails done. What girl doesn't like a little pampering?!  I was excited about this choice as well! Two good picks by these kiddos. She had only been to a salon one other time so she was pretty excited.  She paints her nails, my nails, and anyone else that is willing on a weekly basis so it was a treat for her to get them done.

They even had a little chair for her!

One more day and back to reality for me.....
Good thing I'm ready!!

Books for Charley Drop Off #1

I was so excited to be apart of this year's Books for Charley book drive!  In late April, I contacted Kristin, Charley's mom, and asked if I could join in on this great cause.  It was my mission to pay-it-forward to other kiddos that are in the hospital for any reason.

A little background:

Much like my sister Taylor, Charley earned her angel wings much too early because of a similar congenital heart defect.  They both were supposed to go through the same 3 surgeries and live as normal little girlies but God had other plans although they are hard to understand.  Her family and story hold a place near and dear to my heart although I have never met them nor actually talked to them.  I like to call myself a blog creeper!  :-)  If you want to learn more about Charley's story and her little brother, Harrison, blog hop right over to littlemissritchie.blogspot.com.

During the month of May, I collected as many books and donations as I could from people near and far.    Click here if you want to read how I got it all started off.  The turn out was amazing!!  I am excited to be donating 213 books!!  I dropped half of them off at the Sumner Hospital yesterday and will be dropping off the other half at the Waverly hospital in the next couple of days!

Hopefully, these books will give lots of kids a reason to smile when they aren't feeling the best!

Wedding Bells!

My best friend got married this past weekend and boy-oh-boy did we have a good time!  The weekend was filled with nail appointments, rehearsal, dinner, last night as a Willson, hair appointments, food, a chilly outdoor weeding, and one heck of a party!

Leslie and Justin tied the knot on the Upper Iowa lawn fairy field :-) in weather that we wouldn't have guessed would have been possible on July 27th!  Mother Nature?!?!  Where did that 60 degree, windy, misty weather come from?!  Other than that, everything went perfectly!  Leslie looked absolutely stunning and Justin didn't look bad either I suppose.

The reception was a blast!  We all had ourselves a grand time and danced until the clock rang midnight!    The photo booth may have been my all time favorite thing as I made several trips through there.  Did I mention I caught the bouquet?!  That means I should be getting married next, right Gav?  Oh so patiently waiting....

Les has changed her name on Facebook and I'm not sure I will ever get used to that! Leslie Marchant, who is that?!!?

Congrats Leslie and Justin! I love you both and wish you a life time of happiness and love!

Everything Chevron

Last year, I went with a Jungle Themed classroom.  I had just about everything monkey or jungle related.  I was looking to switch it up a little bit and decided to go with everything chevron and bright colored!  

I normally go teacherspayteacher.com crazy and just search for and buy whatever it is I am looking for. I have decided to try out my own creativity genes though and make some of my own things to sell.  So here you have it...

Hop on over to my TPT store to buy these if you are looking to decorate your own classroom with a little chevron!

The CAFE

   

The Daily 5

 and Beanie Baby Reading Strategies!

(sorry--no cool picture to include!)

I am in the process of making schedule cards and classroom helpers to match!

One Door Closes and Another One Opens!

I have been waiting to hit publish on this post for a couple of weeks to wait for a School Board Meeting  to take place but I do have some rather bittersweet and all at the same time exciting news to share! {I'm sure most of you know anyways--but I wanted it to be official!}

At the beginning of June, I said bittersweet goodbyes to my fellow coworkers in Sumner and gratefully accepted a 1st grade position in the Waverly-Shell Rock District.  I will forever cherish the year I spent at Sumner, the students that I had, and the teachers and mentors that I worked with.  It was such a good experience and couldn't be more thankful for the opportunity that they gave me as a first year teacher.   I want to give a special "shout out" to my mentor, Kathleen, for everything that she did for me.  She was unbelievably helpful each and every day and my first year would have been awful without her.  The SF Cougars will forever hold a special place in my heart!

I couldn't be more excited to be a Go Hawk again, though!  Because Mr. Wonderful is planted in Waverly or the fact that I can't be away from home and love Waverly (okay---so maybe both), it was my long term goal to get back to town.  I'm not sure I will appreciate the 5 minute drive compared to my 45 minute drive to Sumner until the school year begins but I am certainly looking forward to it.  I am looking forward to a whole other list of things as well and can't wait for this upcoming year. 

Now to organizing my classroom--eekkk! #overwhelmed

Which Hats Do I Wear Today?

Being a teacher doesn't mean that I am going to get to go to school to teach and only teach.  There is a whole other list of jobs that I must take on during the day for my kids to be happy, safe, and successful.

**Mom or Grandma--They call me this by mistake but more often than not, they need motherly reassurance, a caring hug, and someone that they know truly cares about them.

**Nurse--Scrapes, cuts, bruise, bloody noses, vomit, accidents, tummy aches, and the list goes on.  You name it--a teacher deals with it.  My desk drawers a loaded with band-aids, although my kids are often mad at me because I don't give them out very easily.  I often encourage them to be tough.  My first year of teaching has led me to deal with flu ridden kiddos, be vomited on, clean up vomit, and have a vomit smelling classroom.

**Actress--If I think some thing is a big deal, I most certainly have 17 kids that think something is a big deal.  If I am excited about something, they are most likely excited about something.  If I act like I am excited about something, they are excited about something.  I can be pretty dramatic as well when I read, my kiddos get a kick out of it---lightens the mood a bit!

**Lawyer--Documentation, documentation, documentation!  I've never wrote down the silliest things before in my life, but I have learned that it is very important just to cover my own behind.  

**Hairstylist

**Secret Keeper

**Professional Shoe Tier--Huge pet peeve!!  In the middle of the year, I began telling them to all find a friend if they didn't know how because I was spending so much time doing it for them.  Instead, they just walked on their laces.  I now am a double knotting queen and they often can't get them untied but I figured parents would probably appreciate their child's laces not being destroyed.

**Police Officer--Rules, Rules, Shmules!

**Snack Provider

**Pants buttoner, zipperer, and tightener (Those elastic tighteners in kids' jeans are life savers!)

**Problem Solver/Mediator

**Oh!  Did I mention that I like to teach as well!!

All in all, teaching wouldn't be teaching if I didn't get the oppurtunity to do all of these different things throughout the day.  Working with kids is what led me to the teaching in the first place and I couldn't be more excited that I am doing what I love!

Birds Galore

Holy Moly! Where do I even begin!? 

When the kids got to school Friday morning, I noticed that two of the eggs had cracked. I didn't share the news since I knew they would be overly excited. By the time pour first recess rolled around, 5 of them had little crack and by the end of the day there were ten with cracks.   I let them know and let them look before their first recess.  Now, while this was pretty exciting, I didn't realize ducks would take soooo long.  With our chickens growing up, it was a relatively quick process.  Friday during school, they were cracked but we couldn't see anything.

                                       

I had gymnastics practice after school so I rushed the eggs to Tatroe's, who wanted to see them hatch so they took them home. I don't think they were prepared for the stink involved with hatching eggs. :-) The first duckling hatched Friday night, one more Saturday morning, and three more Saturday afternoon at their house.  I picked up this stink box and took it home and had one hatch shortly after. Man-o-man did the incubator need cleaned.

Due to a broken air conditioner and me being a worry wart, I witnessed three more hatch in the middle of the night/Sunday morning.  At this point I concocted a divider and put four of the ducklings on the heating pad with the chickens. They don't exactly get along so they have to be separated.  Long story short, I got the incubator cleaned at like 3:30 Sunday morning.

                                      

I got another heating pad and slowly moved the ducks out of the incubator as they dried.  The last three eggs hatch Sunday morning.  Did you read that?!? All 12 eggs successfully hatched!!!!! I was pretty sure they were all dead at one point and time.

                                    

Oh! Did I mention that I bought baby chicks?! I didn't hatch them but rather they came in the mail. Yes, in the mail...in a box. I think the ladies at the post office were rather annoyed when I got there to pick them up.  They were about 24 hours old when I got them and I hope in a few months they'll be laying my breakfast!!  I have planned on getting them for a while but with having the ducks I thought no better time.  Just so happened that they are about exactly the same age.  It was a rather chaotic weekend to say the least.  My plan was to have them in the same pen and raise them together but, ugh, the chicks are mean to my baby ducks!!!

                                  

With Jamison's graduation and birthday parties, I didn't have time to get two pens set up in the coop so my feather headed friends were living in my kitchen and it was growing rather smelly!!  As of last night, my kitchen is put back together, smelling much better, and the birds are outside.  My 31 fur balls got moved and have a little more room to wander about. Man did they run around/spaz when I first put them down. 

...and then it stormed! I was a little stressed about them being out there for like 30 minutes before it torrentially down poured and thunderstormed. Gavin and my dad reassured me that they'd be okay. (Yes, I was raised on a farm and raised chickens but I've always worried about my animals like this.). Shockingly, this morning when I went out to check on them, they were fine and were all snoozing!

Now to keep them alive....

Quick Update!

I don't exactly have Earth shattering news but it's exciting nonetheless.  Our duck eggs are a'rockin!  While this could last a couple of days before they hatch, it means we are getting close and that they haven't died in their shells.  (I was getting a little nervous to say the least.)

I haven't been able to get a kid actually see it because they can't stand there and be patient without bumping the incubator and practically screaming that they haven't seen anything.  Patience is a virtue and it's very limited in first grade!

I could stand and look in the little windows all day.  The first time that I saw one move I had a huge adrenaline rush.  Dork, I know but I was so excited!

I'm still slightly nervous because everything I read about duck eggs is that they are hard to hatch. Eeekkk.  Sounds like they often require help, which is a no-no in the world of hatching as it can cause the animal to bleed to death.  I have also read that it can take up to 18 hours for them to hatch or that they can dry out and die before they get out of their shell.  Do a little extra praying for my ducks please that they make it out on their own!  Last thing I want to do is explain to my first graders why they are all dying on us!

Weekly Wrap-Up!!

It has been a crazy busy week to say the least!  I have been busy with the duck eggs (which still haven't hatched by the way---still duckless), gymnastics practice, special things going on at school, Teachers Pay Teachers sale, and Books for Charley.  So instead of getting a summary of an individual activity, you're getting a weekly wrap-up!  

We dove in head of heals to the Daily 5 a few months back and I am so super proud of my kiddos for how well they work independently so that I can work in small groups.  The five different things they can do are Read to Self, Read to Someone, Work on Writing, Listen to Reading, and Word Work.  Now, they are supposed to have a choice as to where they go and what they do but I found out early on that they weren't the greatest at this so I made a rotation chart and normally have something for them to do at each spot.  It helps me get more accomplished and keeps them busy for the whole round.

                                           

These three boys are Listening to Reading!  I wrote a grant for the MP3 players and they have worked wonderfully!  The kids LOVE LOVE LOVE them!

                                         

More Listening to Reading--Gilbert the Hero!

                                         

Working on Writing!  My-oh-my have we made huge improvements in our writing!  This week we wrote about what we learned at the dairy farm, what they want to be when they grow up, what they think I should change for next year, what they are going to do this summer, and I always give them a day to write about what ever they want.

                                    

Read to Someone!  Since our reading book can be somewhat of a challenge for some, I use this spot for my kiddos to read the stories together and then read practice our reading strategies!  They must sit EEKK (elbow, elbow, knee, knee) and both read!

                         

Here are to of my little one doing some Word Work.  We were working on commas and pronouns this week so they were building sentences and using commas correctly!

After creating the sentences on the pocket chart, they had to record them.

A little Read to Self action!

                                      

Ah, yes!  We have an ant farm!  While slightly disgusting, the kids love it and it is actually pretty interesting.  One of my kids brought this in and we're going to keep it until they all die.  I don't know all of the details.  I just know that they are fire ants and that there is a large pile of dead one accumulating in the top left corner.  If you are interested, it was bought at Wal Mart. :-)

                                        

Tear!  Here is a picture of our duck EGGS!  Yup, they're still just eggs!

                                        

A little "craft"ivity that we did this week while working on prefixes.  I am in love with this spring weather so we did some Prefix Pots!  

Well, there ya have it--a little summary of our crazy week!  Hopefully I'll have some good duck news over the weekend!  Gavin and I are off to Fort Dodge for a wedding.  It is also his birthday tomorrow so give a shout out to him for being old! :-) Still love him although he is awfully close to rounding 30!

More importantly, consider donating a book to "Books for Charley"!!  I would love to get to donate a load of books to surrounding hospitals and give a sick little kiddo a reason to smile!!